


And the World is Mine to Win

by chase_acow



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: First Time, Kittens, M/M, Missionfic, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-19
Updated: 2009-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-04 15:47:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chase_acow/pseuds/chase_acow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alien kittens, miscommunication, and ritual face paint!</p>
            </blockquote>





	And the World is Mine to Win

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to thank [vipersweb](http://vipersweb.livejournal.com/) so much for making sense of the senseless. : ) Seriously, in this scenario I'm Daniel, and Cam was a big question mark before vipersweb came in and whipped him into shape. Remaining mistakes are completely mine --&gt; sometimes I have a thick skull.   
> This is for [thady](http://thady.livejournal.com/) who is wonderfully kind and patient while I sucked. I really hope you enjoy!

"Mitchell, stop teaching the intelligent creatures to play fetch," Daniel muttered, sneaking up behind Cameron and grabbing him by the vest so he could haul him close. Cameron tensed at first but then grinned, rolled his eyes and bumped their shoulders together. "It's not dignified."

Daniel sighed watching the kitten, a baby that nearly came up to his knee, scamper over the grass to bring Cameron's rubber ball back to them. Cameron had started keeping random objects in his vest to entertain himself when SG-1 was in hurry up and wait mode. The Magic 8-Ball had been amusing, telling Vala that the only way to get the Chinese finger trap off was to cut through her fingers was hilarious, but that ball ricocheting from wall to wall had nearly driven Daniel over the edge.

The kitten, a member of the Miuta who lived on the planet with a small group of humans, obviously felt differently. The cub standing on Cameron's boots had big eyes, soft fur, and a tail with a mind of its own. All that combined to leave Vala, Cameron, and surprisingly Teal'c, cooing over them as soon as the team stepped through the Stargate.

"First off, it's not fetch. It's a variation of catch, a game which millions of Earth parents play with their children," Cameron said, pulling out of Daniel's grasp. He took the ball back from the kitten, and lobbed it as far as he could across the field. In an instant, the cub flashed like lightning, and Cameron turned smugly, "Second, he likes the game, so there."

Unlike the adults, the kittens weren't developed enough to speak telepathically across species lines, but they did understand when SG-1 talked to them. The Miuta traced their heritage back to a time before Ra first settled Earth, and there was just something wrong with watching Cameron scratch them underneath their chins. A race with such a wealth and ancient linage just shouldn't be so adorable.

It would help if the Stargate hadn't translated the cub's name to 'Spike'.

"Atta boy, Spike!" Cameron yelled, when Spike galloped back with the ball clutched between his teeth. On Cameron's first walk through the village, he had collected half a dozen kittens who also apparently adored the Colonel on first sight. As the day wore on, only Spike, the chief's son, had the energy to keep playing all day. Cameron took the ball back with obvious reluctance and brushed his knuckles over Spike's cheek, "Sorry, kiddo, but Dr. Jackson's here to tell me it's time to go home for dinner."

Spike perked his ears at Daniel and lifted his waving tail high over his back. He was a striking mix of his parents' coloring, black and dark grey except for splashes of tan fur on his chest, belly, and feet. His striping was more tabby than tiger, but as he aged, Spike's tiger would fade and he'd grow into an abbreviated lion's mane. The species were very physical and affectionate both with each other and with SG-1.

The eyes were just too much, too big and pleading. Daniel hadn't ever been an animal person; there hadn't been room for them when he was a child, and later it would have just been impractical. But between Spike and Cameron, Daniel didn't stand a chance; he didn't even mind playing the bad guy so the two could enjoy some more time together. They'd met all their official first contact requirements already, and last he saw, Vala was still in the midst of a pack of females gossiping while she tied ribbons in their manes. They had some time to kill.

"Fine," he said, rubbing his nose underneath his glasses. He pretended to sigh heavily, but then winked down at Spike , "five more minutes, and then we have to go."

"Thanks, mom!" Cameron teased, and whooped as he took off running with Spike chasing at his heels. His laugh drifted back over the field, and Daniel kicked at a purple dandelion before he followed at a slower pace.

It was a peaceful planet, untouched by any of the wars SG-1 had fought. Somehow, that difference made the years and scars fade from all of the team, letting them enjoy a day off-world. The orange sun was warm, but not too hot, and for once, first contact was an unabashed success. He could get used to missions like these after all the life-threatening situations they'd been through. It didn't hurt that for a change he didn't have to be on full alert waiting for an ambush, and instead, could just watch Cameron for a while.

:_Don't you know, Dr. Jackson, that such a pleasant autumn afternoon is no time for deep thoughts?_:

Turning, Daniel saw Miuty – or The Miuty, he wasn't quite sure – pacing steadily through the long grass. His fur was cream and yellow, shining brightly, while the markings on his face were a fierce orange. His mane waved gently in the breeze. He was the village's spiritual leader and main historian. Lacking opposable thumbs, most of their culture, history, and traditions were passed down orally from generation to generation. Daniel looked forward to coming back to record their ancestry; with their ancient lineage, he hoped they might have a different perspective of the Ancients.

"Oh, no deep thoughts here," Daniel said, sliding his hand along Miuty's cheek in greeting. His fur was soft against Daniel's fingers, and warm. All the male cats emitted a pleasant musk that actually kind of reminded him of Jack's Old Spice aftershave. "I was just letting my mind wander."

:_Towards your chase?_: Miuty asked, inclining his head to where Cameron and Spike had just popped over a second grassy rise. Cameron ran full out with his arms pumping by his sides. He turned, saw that Daniel was still watching, and raised his hand to wave. Spike chose that moment to turn his head too, and the pair blundered into each other and ended up rolling through the grass.

Daniel grinned, shrugging his shoulders. Cameron was generally so stealthy and moved with such control that it tugged at Daniel's lower gut to see him sprawled over the grass with an armful of kitten trying to lick him to death. He looked back at the cat by his side, "I'm not the one frolicking and playing tag."

_:Excuse. I should have used a clearer term.:_ Miuty said, his voice rich with humor echoing inside Daniel's skull. He looked back up at Daniel, eyes bright, _:We call courtship the greatest chase.:_

Blood rushed to his face, and Daniel missed his next step, bumping into Miuty's side. Miuty held fast, his shoulder a warm solid weight at Daniel's hip. "I don't. We're not," Daniel rubbed the back of his neck, uncomfortable with talking about it aloud. His crush on the Colonel was just about the worst kept secret on base, but he'd never had to _actually_ talk about it out loud before. "I mean, I might chase … but he doesn't."

Miuty sat, twisting so he could rub his body along Daniel's flank. His presence was comforting, and when he lifted his head to look up at Daniel, his eyes were softer and understanding. _:There cannot be a chase without both someone to run,:_ he said, and licked his whiskers. He paused, yawning with a show of fang before he continued, _:and someone to follow.:_

A breeze rippled across the fields, and Daniel chewed on the inside of his cheek. Vala had chased him _because_ he ran, and the second he had stopped, she moved on. At the time, he really hadn't known whether to be more annoyed or just flat relieved. On the other hand, if she had actually called his bluff, he wasn't sure what he would have done; he'd already been hopelessly deep into his crush on his team leader. Cameron didn't run so much as stay just out of arm's reach, but unlike with Vala, Daniel knew exactly what he wanted to do, if he ever caught Cameron.

_:Come, Dr. Jackson -:_ Miuty said, breaking into Daniel's thoughts. He had assured Daniel that although their speech was a form of telepathic communication, they could and would not read the thoughts of others. The Stargate translated SG-1's words, but Miuty especially seemed able to read Daniel's body language with ease.

"Please," Daniel interrupted, running his hand over the Miuty's soft velvety ears. He couldn't be upset with Miuty, who had shown himself to be both intelligent, interesting, and kind, "call me Daniel."

_:Very well, Daniel:_ Miuty agreed, and butted his head against Daniel's thigh to get him moving again. _:Come, and my offspring and I will show you one of our traditional games before you go.:_

Daniel let himself be herded and dropped his hand to Miuty's mane. He glanced down warily and asked, "Why do I get the feeling, I'm about to end up brusied and covered with dirt?"

_:Because in some matters, Daniel, you are a very astute man.:_

 

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

 

The air inside the SGC smelled like rotten fish, cotton candy, and gasoline. As soon as Cam stepped out of the elevator shaft, he nearly tossed the French toast he'd had for breakfast. He covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve, and exchanged a look of commiseration with the airman on guard duty. Cam's eyes started watering from the rancid air.

In theory, there could have been any number of reasons for the stench from entirely innocuous air conditioning issues to Jackson pissing off another near-unbeatable alien enemy. However, Cam put his money on the dark horse. Keeping his sleeve over his face, Cam hurried down the hallway.

"Dr Lee, can you tell me why the entire place smells worse than a mulch pile in a hog farm?" Cam asked as soon as he stepped into Lee's labs. The smell had gotten steadily worse, but inside the office, Cam could almost _see_ the stink floating through the air. He fought the urge to wave his hand in front of his face.

Lee looked up from his bench, a pair of goggles covering his head that magnified his eyes bigger than the half dollar coins Cam's grandma still gave him every year for his birthday. He had an oversized clothespin in place securely shutting both his nostrils. "Colonel Mitchell! Maybe you could help me for a minute?" he asked, his voice high and distorted.

Cam walked over, pulled the clothespin from Lee's face and clipped it over his own nose. It was nearly as bad, pulling the air into his mouth, but at least the pinch distracted him. "I don't know, if I get any closer, am I gonna end up stinking forever?" Cam asked, cautiously circling around to the other side of Lee's experiment.

"No," Dr. Lee answered, gagging into his fist until he got himself under control again. "Or at least, probably not. Have you ever heard of the Bog of Eternal Stench?"

"That's good enough for me, Igor, I'll leave you to it," Cam said, holding his hands up and backing out the door. He ignored Lee's yelling and trotted down the hallway, ready to be anywhere but there. He turned the corner and nearly ran into Sam, "Whoa!"

She wore a surgeon's mask to cover the lower half of her face, but her hair was more frazzled than usual. It was good to have her back under the mountain again. Since they'd captured the final Ba'al, Area 51 had begged to have her back. Landry let her go with the condition that she spend every seventh and eighth week back at the SGC to keep their projects up and running. Cam thought she seemed happier now, even with the commute, than when she was out on Atlantis.

"Hey, Cam," she said, speaking loudly so that the mask wouldn't muffle her. "What are you doing here? Most everyone else skedaddled until we find a way to lock down the spores."

"'Spores?'" Cam grimaced; he'd seen some nasty stuff, but there was just something about that word that made his skin crawl. "You know what? Never mind. I don't want to know. Just point me at the safe zone."

Sam was probably grinning; she loved it when she had the chance to gross him out. "The smell clears out three levels up or three levels down," she answered, and swapped her files from one arm to the other. "I think Daniel's down in the weight room, since his office currently smells like a dead mackerel stuffed with cedar chips."

"Oh?" Cam asked, mouth twitching a little despite his best efforts. He was pretty sure there was a pool going on behind his back that had something to do with him and Daniel. The SGC had bets going on everything from the Superbowl to how many jello squares a person could shove in their mouth. Too bad for them, Cam never liked being a pawn in other peoples' games, "Maybe I'll go see what Vala's up to."

"You could, but she's been pretty bored lately. Last I saw, she was trying to convince Walter to let her paint his fingernails," Sam informed him, raising her eyebrows in a 'what can you do?' gesture.

Vala's bouts of boredom were legendary; they were still trying to clean the diet soda off the ceiling of the 'gate room. Cam quickly backtracked, and figured that a little harmless matchmaking that he wasn't actually sure _was_ matchmaking, was a better fate than a Vala-esque make-over. "Well then, down the rabbit hole I go," he said and backed up to open the door to the staircase with his hip. "Are we still on for team night on Thursday?"

"Yeah, I'll be there," Sam said, her surgical mask shifted as she smiled. "I'll bring the potato salad."

"Good, Daniel picked _Pan's Labyrinth_ for the movie, and Teal'c said he'd man, or well, Jaffa the grill," Cam said and winked, throwing off a half-assed salute. "Good luck with that whole - spore thing."

Whistling echoed down the stairwell, as Cam jogged down the required five flights as quick as he could, jumping the last three steps before each landing. He took the clothespin off his nose before he shouldered through the door and finally breathed freely. This level held the rec rooms, weight rooms, and the non-combat locker and shower area. Maybe he'd see if Daniel was up for a little one-on-one.

In the basketball sense of the phrase, of course.

It wasn't that he wouldn't maybe like more with Daniel eventually, but Cam knew he was long past the age where he could be peer pressured into anything. He'd trust Sam with his life, but her subtle hints at Daniel baffled him. He finally felt like he and Daniel were at the place where they were friends. The last time the team ate lunch with Jack, he didn't feel like the ugly duckling competing for attention. Besides that, SG-1 was his team now; nothing was worth messing that up.

Starting something with Daniel, if he was interested like Cam thought he might be, meant putting that at risk. Flaunting half a dozen regulations that might put his whole career at risk; plus he had a responsibility to the people he commanded. Cam wouldn't do anything to put that in jeopardy unless he was damn sure about the outcome. And he just wasn't there yet. Daniel might want him, but Cam didn't know what for. It was too big of a chance to take if all it amounted to was a few casual dates.

In the locker room, he felt the warm moisture in the air before he even heard the shower running. He spotted a folded uniform on the bench in front of him and poked it until he found a nametag reading _D. Jackson_. Cam really shouldn't borrow trouble; could even have sworn that he told his feet to go back out the way they came, but instead, he walked quietly around the last row of lockers to the shower area. Only one of the cubbies was occupied, and from his vantage point, Cam could see the familiar lines of his teammate's back through the spray of water.

The short walls of the stall blocked the area from Daniel's knees to the subtle flare of his hips, but everything else imprinted instantly in Cam's memory like the first thing a baby chick sees when it opens its eyes. He'd seen Daniel before of course, but never when he could just _look_ without being caught or distracted by blood and weapons fire.

Daniel had deeply tanned arms, corded with strong muscles that moved gracefully beneath his skin as he washed his chest with soap that lathered too much to be regular base supply. His shoulders shaded only slightly less dark than his arms, and were broad before his back tapered down to his waist. The water plastered his hair down flat to his skull, and when he tipped his face up to the shower nozzle, Cam could follow the flow of water down the tendons of his neck.

Cam swallowed roughly and shifted; the warmth of the steam left him hot and chafing against the rough material of his uniform. He rubbed his fingertips against his thighs and shuffled his feet between the choice to step forward or backward. Despite his resolve not to jump into anything, the temptation to reach out was extremely hard to suppress.

The soap bubbles trailed down Daniel's body, out of sight for a moment and then back, mixing into the hair on Daniel's calf before it circled the drain. Daniel dropped his hands down past his stomach and spread his legs wide. He turned slightly, and Cam could see that he had his eyes shut tight.

Cam executed the best about-face of his career and left the locker room. How bad could pink fingernails be?

 

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

 

Daniel shuffled his paperwork from one side of his desk to the other. He paused, propping his chin up on one hand, while he poked at the stack with his other index finger to line it up with edge of his calendar. Maybe he should alphabetize it for easier filing. Or he could just shred and recycle them; there was only so many ways the military could shoot down all his proposals for new research directions.

He never thought that he'd miss the old days, when the Earth was one misstep away from complete annihilation. Somehow, research, publication, lectures, and time spent with dusty old books wasn't really the way he wanted to spend his life anymore. There were kids running all over the SGC with better eyesight and more enthusiasm who could spend their days stooped over manuscripts in bad lighting with bad coffee.

The chair squeaked as he settled back in. He turned too quickly under his desk and ended up banging his leg on an edge of metal. Cursing, Daniel rubbed his knee and pursed his lips in annoyance. It wasn't that he _liked_ the danger or anything, but there was something to be said for a little adventure away from bosses, junk mail, and the mundane life that most people took for granted.

Taking the top memo from his in-box, Daniel wadded it up in one hand and aimed at the small basketball hoop Cameron had set up over the trashcan. The ball of paper hit the backboard and bounced against the rim before it landed in the bin with a soft thunk. Sometimes Cameron would come in with a worn tennis ball, and try to bank shots off the walls and the rest of Daniel's office furniture.

Daniel knew he was a goner when that stopped annoying him and instead became a great source of entertainment. He'd warned Cameron that if the ball bounced and broke anything, he knew all the best places to hide a body. Cameron had just smirked and banked the ball off a filing cabinet straight into the trashcan.

Tipping his chair back, Daniel stretched his legs out over the top of this desk and stared at the ceiling. There was no line of demarcation to toe, no place he could look at and say _there_, that was when it happened. That was when the Stargate finally made him gay for his team leader.

On missions, he elbowed Vala out of his way so he could walk next to Cameron. He'd started watching _Eureka_ because Cameron had made a joke referencing it. Daniel even tried to play softball for the SGC's annual Air Force versus Marines game, and boy, was that a rollicking failure. The situation was nearly reversed from when Cameron first showed up – now Daniel was the slavering fanboy.

Cameron was attractive; people- men and women- all over the galaxy thought so. It didn't matter what he wore: greens, blues, or chocolate-chip BDUs, jeans or even, _especially_, their undercover leather cowboy get-ups – he _always_ looked good. From the very few times that Daniel had swallowed his guilt and managed to sneak a peak, Cameron didn't have anything to be ashamed of naked either.

He couldn't even really remember the last time that'd he'd messed around with a guy. It might have been the first time he'd been in Cairo doing research, too young and stupid to know how to pace himself. He'd been drunk on both the natives' brew and the excitement of the hunt. Aliens using the pyramids as landing zones still sounded absurd, even though he knew it was true.

Daniel was not a man who had a lot of experience with crushes, but he knew a little about passion. He knew that the slow burn in his stomach that started whenever he was around Cameron was just the beginning of the fuse. He knew he was going to have to do something soon or he'd completely fall apart.

If something was worth going after, then it was worth going after with everything he had.

 

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

 

Cam flipped off the heater and grabbed his stuff from the passenger seat. His gut rumbled unpleasantly reminding him that he'd skipped breakfast that morning. He was really looking forward to his crock-pot chili. Kicking the car door shut behind him, he jogged up the front walk, trying to dig in his pocket for his keys.

"Well, don't you clean up nice?"

Startled, Cam jumped and automatically reached down his thigh for his sidearm. It wasn't there, and he'd nearly dropped into a crouch before he realized that it was Daniel leaning up against the sheltered porch that Cam couldn't see from the driveway.

"Man, Jackson," Cam said, trying not to breathe to fast. He should have been paying better attention to his surroundings, but it had just been so quiet lately. Daniel didn't usually pop up out of nowhere when they didn't have a team night planned. "Give a guy a heart attack, why dontcha?"

Daniel grinned, one of the ones that meant he was vaguely uncomfortable but wanted to stick it out anyway. He shrugged and shoved his hands deeper inside his hip pockets. "Sorry," he said, sounding anything but, "What are you all dressed up for?"

"Just got out from church," Cam said, holding his Bible up as he finally pulled his key out and unlocked the door. "Not all of us are heathens."

"Really?"

Cam shouldered open the door and stepped inside, smiling when Daniel followed close on his heels without an invitation. He shrugged out of his suit jacket, and then set his Bible and keys down on the side table. "Every time I'm planetside on Sundays. Is it so surprising?"

"After everything we've been through, I just thought it'd be a little pointless," Daniel said shrugging, and already wandering through the living room poking at Cam's knick-knacks. He made the same rounds every time he was over and always paused by the first team picture Cam's SG-1 had ever taken together.

Cam shook his head, rolling his sleeves up his forearms and loosening his tie. "I think it's _more_ important after all we've been through," he said. Normally he changed when he got home, but he was starving, and the last time he left Daniel alone in his living room, Daniel had started sorting his CDs be genre and release date. "Think about the odds. We should have all been dead half a dozen times, but here we are. _'Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God.'_"

"Huh," Daniel said, pausing and cocking his head to study Cam in that singular way he had. Cam could almost see the wheels turning behind Daniel's eyes. "I guess I knew, but I just never really thought about you being that religious. Your granny yes, you no."

Rolling his eyes, Cam wandered into his kitchen knowing Daniel would follow him. "I don't thump the Good Book at people, or tell them how to live. I don't think that anyone who isn't Southern Baptist is going to hell," he said, spelling it out because he knew that it was important. He didn't want Daniel to think he was one of those closed-minded zealots that ruined it for everybody, "I have faith. Wouldn't kill you to put a little in somebody besides yourself."

"I have faith in you."

"I'll remind you that you said that next time you're about to drive me crazy in the field," Cam teased. The chili smelled even better up close, he decided, warm and spicy. Opening the fridge, Cam had to bend over to reach the butter for the cornbread he'd baked the night before.

"Cameron?"

Cam straightened and turned back around to face Daniel with his eyebrows up. Daniel had that peculiar mix of stubbornness and curiosity that made Cam automatically tense for action. Even though he was reasonably sure they were safe, if anyone could start a galactic war in his kitchen, it would be Daniel.

"We have a good working relationship now, right?" Daniel asked, and then continued without waiting for Cam to respond. "Of course we do. I just meant that it's not like we're stuck with each other," Daniel said, speaking fast, and rubbing his temples in agitation. "Sometimes it disrupts dynamics, but I think we've shown that SG-1 is really beyond that now, and the only way Landry will get involved is over his own dead body."

Daniel kept talking, and Cam's eyebrows kept rising until he was afraid that he was going to lose them completely. It almost sounded like Daniel was trying to brace Cam as if he wasn't going to like whatever it was Daniel was trying to say. Finally, he waved his hands in front of Daniel and nearly yelled, "Whoa down there, hoss! For as many PhDs as you have, you're making about as much sense as Teal'c in a tutu."

"I was just trying to …" Daniel trailed off, fidgeting with a can opener he'd picked up from Cam's counter. He couldn't have been more awkward if he'd tried. "I was just wondering if you were interested …"

Cam's stomach growled again, and a sharp pain jabbed at him reminding him that skipping breakfast when a revival was on and he _knew_ the preacher would be long, wasn't the smartest idea in the world. Whatever Daniel was trying to say, he could do it over lunch. "How about we just have some chili, huh?" Cam asked, detouring wide around Daniel, so he could grab his spare roll of paper towels from beside the microwave. "I think I've got something on TiVo we could watch."

There was just the barest hint of a smile on Daniel's face as he nodded and waited for Cam to hand him a bowl heaped with Granny's deluxe chili. Cam was so starved that he barely said a word while he shoveled the beans and beef in his mouth. Daniel excused himself as soon as he was finished when Cam was just pulling up a movie he'd taped. It wasn't the strangest afternoon they'd ever spent together or anything, but it took several days for it to fade from the back of Cam's mind.

 

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

 

Daniel buried himself in his work. Everything that he'd put off so he could wallow in his crush like a twelve year old girl, moved to his high priority folder, and he had assistants running errands out of his office constantly. He had paper cuts on the majority of his fingers and even his nose, though thankfully no one seemed to notice. A perpetual caffeine headache made him more irritable than usual, but at least he knew.

He knew that Cameron didn't feel the same way about him. Ambushing him on Sunday right after church service probably hadn't been the smartest time to broach the subject of gay sex. It had been a long shot to begin with, normally, when people were interested in him, they threw themselves at him, just like Vala had. Sure, he'd maybe hoped for something a little more with Cameron, but it just wasn't going to happen.

He'd escaped as quickly as he could and had called Sam on his way home. She knew right away that something had gone wrong. He still couldn't believe that while he'd tried to ask Cameron if he was interested in starting a relationship, Cameron had only been interested in lunch. It wasn't even the most graceful let down he'd ever had. Sam had been supportive, and he guessed that after so many years of going through the same thing with Jack, she would know.

Well, it was all over by the crying, anyway. He had his answer from Cameron, and Daniel definitely wasn't one to beat a dead horse. He just had to keep going, keep working. That was what he did, what he'd do until he died most likely.

Sucking on the freshest paper cut on his pinky, Daniel patted down his desk looking for the pen that his stacks of research had eaten. One of the piles shifted, fanned down, and covered everything else. The angles the papers fell in made the lines of his writings and a drawing he'd copied from a sarcophagus melt together. The new picture clicked something in Daniel's memory, and he dived under his desk looking for something he'd crumpled up yesterday.

"Daniel?" Vala's voice was muffled almost too low to hear through the wood and Daniel's excitement.

"Under here," he called back, ignoring the creak in his knees while he shuffled, smoothing out a paper ball only to throw it aside when it wasn't what he wanted.

Vala nudged his leg and sat down heavily in Daniel's desk chair, "Now really, Daniel. We've given you a week to mope around, but hiding under your desk is really going a bit too far."

"Vala?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Shut the hell up and uncrumple these," Daniel said ignoring the patronizing tone in Vala's voice. He'd mostly been able to ignore the subtle and not so much efforts of his teammates to matchmake for him, but it felt like a slap to the face now.

After a second, he heard Vala sigh and felt her take the paper from his hand. He wiggled further down, where in a fit of industry he'd wedged a folded packet to stop his desk from jiggling.

"Would you mind telling me what I'm looking for?" she asked.

"A diagram," Daniel answered, trying to pull on the paper without tearing it. It was jammed in tight, and he had to pull it a centimeter at a time from side to side, "of a device. It should be roughly spherical with several controls on the top. It's the middle page of three, and I need the other two pages as well."

"Daniel, Daniel, Daniel," Vala tisked, lifting her leg to rest it on Daniel's back like he was her personal footstool. "Squinting at all these papers are giving you wrinkles and making you terribly dull. You need to get back out there. On a pony."

"Horse, Vala," Daniel corrected, and reached back to shove her feet off him. "It's getting back on the horse."

"Horse, pony, _whatever_," Vala said, huffing her impatience. "You can't sit in here all day long. I'm young, and I'm bored, and I want you to take me to this thing I just discovered. It's called a monster truck rally."

Gritting his teeth, Daniel tugged harder than he probably should have, "Ha! Got it."

"Hey, Jackson, you wanna, oh, Vala. Have you seen Daniel?"

Daniel froze as he felt Vala shift and spread her legs around his body. Bad did not cover his current situation. He'd managed to avoid Cameron in one-on-one situations for the past few days, and although Cameron was acting like everything was normal, Daniel really didn't want to test his luck. Climbing up from under his desk through Vala's legs was not really an entrance he ever wanted to make.

"Define 'seen'," Vala teased, and Daniel could almost see her lopsided grin and that speculative glint she got in her eyes when she was making trouble.

Rolling his eyes at Vala's veiled innuendo, Daniel kicked the chair hard enough to jolt her and climbed out. "I'm here," he said, letting his irritation color his voice. He knew his face was red from having his head down, and he scowled once at Vala, before he turned around to see Cameron.

"Oh, sorry," Cameron's eyes were wide, and he held his hands up in front of him like he was going to fight them off if they made a single move in his direction. He flushed darkly under the fluorescent lighting, "I didn't mean to intrude."

"You're welcome to watch," Vala said, as she rubbed her fingers down Daniel's neck, tucking in the tag from his t-shirt. "If you're good, I might even let you play."

Cameron swallowed visibly, and back peddled to the door. He looked at the bookshelves, at Daniel's light table, at the overflowing trashcan, at anything except Daniel and Vala. "R-_ight_," he drawled. "You two might think about maybe closing or locking the door next time."

With a grunt, Daniel stood up and rapped Vala on the back of her head. "You, stop talking," he said, pointing at her, and then walked around the desk unfolding the papers as he went. "Look at this, Cameron. I think I've got something."

"Something, like a mission something?" Cameron asked hopefully, edging back into the room and close into Daniel's space so he could see the pages. They'd all been bored since they got back from the Miuta planet a couple of weeks previously. "This isn't more Merlin tomfoolery is it?"

"Ever heard of the Sphere of Democritus before?" Daniel asked, letting his excitement get the better of his annoyance for Vala. This is what he needed, an old school off world mission where he could do some exploring and forget everything else.

Vala let her head thump down on Daniel's desk as she moaned, "No, Daniel. No one with an iota of a life has any idea what the Scion of Democracy is. Nor do they care."

"The _Sphere_ of _Democritus_," Daniel cut his eyes sideways, glaring at Vala. He wondered how much trouble he'd be in if she didn't come back after the mission. The galaxy was a big place after all, with lots of places to get lost in.

Cameron clasped him on the shoulder, tugging Daniel out into the hallway, "C'mon, you can tell me all about it over lunch. I hear they're serving Chicken á la King."

For a second, it was like old times, and Daniel smiled feeling the muscles of his stomach tighten. Then reality crashed back down, and he realized Cameron was just being the same friendly guy he always was. It didn't mean anything, but if it was all Daniel was going to get, then he could at least have something.

Maybe that would be enough.

 

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Sickly yellow energy covered Cam's hands, crackling as the light splintered over his skin. His pinkies and ring fingers curled back against his palms, twitching whenever a new spark flared from the machine. His harsh panting was the only noise in the prison except for the sounds of Daniel's pacing. Sweat dripped down from Cameron's temples and collected in between his fingers.

Cam should have known something wasn't right with the mission. Daniel acted oddly - even for Daniel - and both Teal'c and Vala kept throwing him funny looks all the way from the Stargate. Apparently, everyone was in on the secret but him, and he was just irritated enough to let Daniel wander away after Cam had already told him to stay put. So much for having faith.

When they were attacked, Daniel was out of position and ended up being taken. It was Cameron's fault, he shouldn't have been distracted trying to figure out whatever the hell it was eating away at Daniel's brain. It had started right after Daniel had shown up on his doorstep with something pressing on him, only to leave without actually telling Cam anything that made sense. The more Cam thought about it, the more confused he became, and Daniel's subsequent avoidance hadn't made him feel any better.

One day, Daniel was always there whenever Cam turned around and the next day, Cam had to hunt through three levels just to find him. He started worrying that Daniel was going to quit the team and go back to being a full time scientist. As far as Cam was concerned that was just not going to happen. Not over his dead _or_ alive body. They were together, a team.

"Is it bad?" Daniel asked, his voice echoing off the stone walls of the room and shaking Cam out of his thoughts. The cell locked Daniel in by both metal bars and an energy barrier that kept them from picking the lock by mechanical means. It wasn't the most sophisticated technology they came across, not even as complicated as setting up a DVR, though it was a little more painful.

"You know how a kid'll play out in the snow until his hands get cold, and then the second he's back inside, he'll shove 'em under the hot water tap?" Cam said slowly, pausing often to bite at his lower lip and struggle with the alien technology. Even the memory of screaming bloody murder as a child while it felt like his hands were being melted by acid didn't make his current pain any less.

"That bad, huh?"

"Yeah. Actually, it's worse," Cam muttered, his whole frame shaking from the effort of keeping his body hunched over to work on the wires. Suddenly he jerked back, and the fizzle of dying energy filled the air. His fingers felt like they'd never uncurl again, "There, got it."

The energy field surrounding the bars dropped, and Daniel could finally reach through and manually open the locking mechanism. It only took two long strides to get to Cam's side. "Here," he said reaching out, "Let me see."

"No, it's okay," Cam said quickly, pulling his hands back against his chest. It wasn't that he didn't trust Daniel, but hands were important. He needed them for flying, and eating, and shaking his fists at the Pac 10 refs. "We should get going before Vala and Teal'c run out of distractions."

"Just a second," Daniel insisted, his voice soft while he didn't quite meet Cam's eyes, "I'm not going to hurt you."

Daniel reached out and pulled Cam's right hand out from the shelter of his chest. Gently, he rubbed his thumbs into the middle of Cam's palm and tried to straighten out Cam's fingers. He paused just a second before Cam flinched, and ducked his head to breathe warmly over Cam's abused muscles. Daniel narrowed his eyes, concentrating hard on Cam's skin. Cam couldn't help noticing that his palms were broader across, even though their fingers were the same length.

After a few seconds of work, Cam's hands relaxed, and his fingers straightened out. Daniel glanced up, and heated when he realized that Cam was watching him closely. He moved on to the other hand and repeated his massage, swallowing down over his ragged breathing. Cam shifted, his feet dragged across the unfinished floor. There was something strangely intimate in the touch, more than most of the sex Cam had experienced. Daniel ended up rubbing Cam's hand between his, and Cam wished for half a second that he could lace their fingers together.

Cameron pulled away, flexing his fingers, but not surprised that Daniel had managed to work another miracle. "Thanks," he said roughly, clearing his throat against his confusion. He reached down to his thigh and unbuckled the Zat. He handed it to Daniel and lifted his own weapon, "Here. Keep on my six and don't stop 'til we get to the gate."

Daniel activated the Zat and held it in front of him, nodding.

"I mean it," Cam reached out with his newly working hand and grabbed the front of Daniel's coat. Daniel had the bad habit of pretending to agree and then doing whatever he felt he needed to do anyway. "You lost your vest. I want you to stay behind me and don't take any stupid chances. We clear?"

"Crystal."

Cam nodded and took the lead, pausing just to make sure no one had crept up on their position while he'd been deactivating the device, "That's why I get paid the big bucks."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm a pay grade or two up from you," Daniel said from behind him, mostly because it just wouldn't be the same if he let Cam have the last word once in a while.

The hallway was just as empty as before. Cam didn't think that the people who had attacked them had built it; they definitely didn't have enough people to staff it, even taking into consideration Teal'c and Vala giving them the run-around by setting off perimeter alarms. He jerked his head for Daniel to followed and figured one more comment wouldn't give their position away, "Maybe, but you don't have the awesome blue uniform to drive all the girls crazy, do you?"

As they crept through the corridors, Cam noted that all the hallways looked the same. He almost thought that he'd taken a wrong turn, until he spotted the end of a patrol detachment making a turn right in front of them. He stopped with one foot still up in midstep, but Daniel kept walking right into his back. Daniel clutched at him for a second, and Cam prayed that he wouldn't skid across the floor and draw attention to them.

Daniel's face was right up next to Cam's ear, and he whispered, "Wouldn't want it unless it was an equal opportunity crazy-maker."

"_Daniel_," Cam said, trying to give Daniel the hint to shut up. The stone could reflect any noise they made and increase it until even the shoddily trained guards couldn't miss them. It figured that Daniel would pick a moment like that to finally try to confess his crush on Cam.

"I know you're not, or at least you don't want to with me, and I won't mention it again, but I wanted to thank you for still being my friend. I know that I'm not the easiest person to-"

Cam reached back and slapped his palm over Daniel's mouth. "Now is really not the time, Daniel," he said, ignoring his increasing confusion and pushing it to the back of his mind. He had to get them out alive; anything and everything else had to wait until they were safe and sound back on Earth.

If Daniel were going to try to resign then he was going to have to try in a place where Cam could yell as loud as he wanted to. No one could out shout a Mitchell when one of them got going; reunions usually left them all with ringing ears from people trying to tell stories over each other. They were going to talk though, Cam decided, something was definitely strained between them, and hell if he knew what.

He stared Daniel down until Daniel finally dropped his eyes. With Daniel quiet and finally following orders, it was easier to sneak out of the compound that turned out to be little more than a Stone Age office building. Cam swore he saw a front desk and reception area. They even made it outside to the small rise so he could flash his mirror at Teal'c and Vala to signal them back to the gate. He smiled over at Daniel ready to continue their earlier conversation and ask what the hell Daniel had been talking about.

That was when Cam stepped where he shouldn't ought to have stepped, and woke up three days later in the infirmary.

* * *

 

The first thing Carolyn told him when he woke up was that Daniel had stayed by his bedside for two and a half days until she finally chased him out. The second thing she told him, was that he'd be fine, but he should probably try to watch where he was going from now on. Teal'c visited and brought one of those puzzle books with pictures that make a saying. Vala hopped up on the bed, jostling his sore leg and filled him in on all the gossip that he'd missed. Neither one mentioned Daniel, and Daniel didn't come back either.

It felt like Daniel had all but decided to publicly declare his interest in Cam; though Cam to concede that sitting at his bed in the infirmary was a better way of going about that than announcing it while hiding from the enemy. Maybe the blow to his head had finally loosened something, but Cam was ready to cowboy up. Though he wasn't quite sure how Daniel had gone from dogging Cam's steps, to trying to quit the team, to avoiding Cam, and finally to doing sentry duty while Cam slept.

Daniel liked him. Cam didn't quite remember everything about their last mission, but he couldn't forget the feeling of Daniel's fingers on his. Cam liked Daniel, and really neither one of them were getting any younger. It didn't make any sense not to do something he wanted to do just because everybody and their dogs were waiting to see what would happen. They weren't in the fourth grade, Cam didn't have pigtails to pull and he thought that Daniel was articulate enough to get his point across without resorting to telling Cam that he smelled funny.

Cam was just confused, and the low-grade headache he'd had since he'd woken up wasn't helping anything.

On day six of his exile in the infirmary, Cam was bored enough that he was watching daytime TV and seriously considering ordering Slankets to give away for Christmas presents. Seriously, what could be better than a fuzzy blanket with sleeves? Luckily for Cam's masculinity, Sam called just when Cam was about to punch the eight hundred number in.

"Hi, Cam," she said, her voice thin through the telephone connection from a state away, "heard you'd taken up tap dancing."

"Funny, Sam. Really. You should quit your day job and go on tour," Cam replied, shifting restlessly on the small bed. He had his suspicion that a torture artist had actually created them. "Hey, have you talked to Daniel lately? He's been weird. Well, weirder." If anyone was going to know what put the burr under Daniel's saddle, it'd be Sam. He wanted to feel her out on whether she thought Daniel was interested in having a relationship with him.

He wasn't going to just ask of course. That would be too easy, and he didn't think he could stand listening to her teasing him from now to infinity.

There was an extra long pause on the line where he could hear her breathing and a machine beeping in the background. "Don't you think that you should just leave Daniel alone for a while? He's going through a lot," she asked finally.

"I'm the one who nearly got blown sky high," Cam pointed out. He scratched around the bandages on his leg. He wasn't that badly hurt, not like some of the knocks he'd gotten in the past, but he was sore. "Besides, I left him alone and that's when he started really pulling away."

"Well, wouldn't you?"

Cam pulled the phone away and squinted at it as if that would make Sam able to see his expression. Damn. He must have completely missed the mark about Daniel's crush. His heart sank, when he realized that maybe he'd been right the first time about Daniel wanting to quit the team. "No," he answered, bringing the phone back up to his ear. "He's the one who showed up at my house talking about quitting the team. He seemed fine for awhile and then-"

"Wait, what?" Sam cut in before Cam could really work up any steam. "When did Daniel try to quit? He didn't tell me."

"Yeah, I was just as surprised," Cam agreed, he wrapped the phone cord around his hand and shifted to the other ear. "Just out of the blue one Sunday, he shows up on my porch and starts babbling about team dynamics and how we weren't stuck together anymore. I changed the subject and I _thought_ he understood that I wasn't about to let him go after all this, but-"

Sam started laughing. It wasn't the polite laugh she trotted out when General Landry tried to make a joke, or even the chuckle when she joined in a laugh with one of SG-1. No, this was a full-scale cackle that ricocheted from the receiver, bounced through Cam's head and escaped the other side. She even snorted.

Cam scowled, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Sam howled, still laughing. "Absolutely nothing about this whole situation is funny; I just can't believe how much you've both screwed it all up."

"Sam," Cam drew her name out, hoping that his obvious annoyance would get her to straighten up. He thought maybe he had an inkling of what she couldn't say over the phone, "Are you trying to insinuate that I may not have an accurate grasp on the situation?"

"Just talk to him," she said, still giggling. "Listen, I've got to go, but I want a phone call after you two have worked things out." Just before the line clicked dead, Cam heard her mutter, "Men, _seriously_."

Cam tried not to take it personally. He was never going to overestimate Daniel _or_ Sam's ability to behave like a sane thirty-something ever again.

Eventually, Cam got out of the infirmary with an admonishment to take it easy, so the first thing he did was limp down nearly every hallway in the SGC looking for Daniel. It turned out to be an exercise in frustration. He had no idea how Daniel, the man who had barely scored high enough on the stealth portion of the obstacle course to be allowed off-world, managed to stay two steps ahead of him. It was damn uncanny how he seemed to sense when Cam was trying to corner him alone. For once, everyone else was staying out of it and Cam had to grit his teeth.

Thankfully, a few weeks later, they got an easy assignment put in their laps. It was good timing, Cam was about ready to bust some heads if that was what it took to get Daniel alone for more than five seconds. The harder he chased, the more determined Daniel was to slip out of Cam's clutches. If that was what he'd been putting Daniel through for so long, no wonder Daniel was disinclined to be caught.

An away mission would give him a chance to smooth things over with Daniel. Plus, he looked forward to seeing Spike again.

 

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"Howdy, everyone," Cameron said immediately when he stepped through the gate behind Daniel. He brushed Daniel's arm as he stepped out in front, and Daniel had to stifle a shiver when he caught a whiff of Cameron's aftershave. "How's the little furballs?"

_:Not so little anymore.:_

Daniel felt his eyebrows shoot up when he realized that the young male standing beside the Miuty was actually Spike. It had probably only been around six months since their last visit, but Spike had nearly doubled in size. A thick tuft of black fur sprouted up from his head, looking more like a mohawk than the mane it would eventually become.

"So I see. Somebody's been feeding you varmints miracle-grow," Cameron said, grinning and swinging down the steps so he could sit and look the former cub in the eye. "Hey Spike-enator, what's going on?"

Spike lifted his head and butted his muzzle against Cameron's jaw, sliding their cheeks together in a sign of friendship. He was already big, bigger than the others his age, who still had a new kittenish look about their big paws and scrawny legs. Cameron reached up and buried his fingers in Spike's soft ruff, scratching gently.

_:As you can see, my son is quickly approaching adulthood,:_Miuty said, stepping forward to accept greeting rubs from Teal'c, Vala, and Daniel. He rubbed against Daniel's side and then moved back to sit next to Spike. _:He can now speak across species boundaries and there is only a final step before he can accept his birthright._

"I don't suppose it's a treasure hunt?" Vala asked quickly, and sat next to Cameron, crossing her legs with a cheeky smile.

Daniel quickly squashed the urge to smack her on the back of the head. Vala had been helping him avoid Cameron the last couple of weeks, even against her initial protests. He'd gotten the impression from Teal'c that Sam had talked her into a change of mind after Daniel had drunk dialed Sam while Cameron was still in the infirmary. He had no idea what he'd said, but apparently it had been enough to get everyone to back off, except when he actually asked their help to keep a low profile. Teal'c had given him the stink eye for several long seconds before he finally nodded

_:Nothing so exciting for you. Spike and his protector need to climb to our sacred cave and participate in a vision quest,:_ Miuty answered, his ears swiveling to catch the smallest of sounds. _ Spike has asked me to formally request you as his protector, Cameron.:_

It was probably incredibly juvenile to be jealous of what amounted to a teenager with hero worship, but Daniel gritted his teeth anyway. "So, this sacred cave," Daniel pursed his lips and crossed his arms over his chest, "is it impossible to climb to, full of monsters, or is the ritual something that will incapacitate or otherwise alter his perceptions?"

"Jackson!"

_:It is not dangerous,:_ Miuty said, his voice echoed through Daniel's skull rich with warmth and humor, _:but we have found that a little company goes a long way to smooth a youngster's ruffled fur._

"I would be delighted," Cameron said, enunciating every syllable to show his irritation while he glared at Daniel. He turned back and nodded to both Spike and Miuty, "I'm honored."

_:Then if you are willing, we will make preparations now. You and Spike will leave when the sun is at its height and return before the moon rises._

"Sounds like a plan," Cameron said standing to walk beside Spike. His fingers just barely grazed the top of Spike's head. Teal'c lowered his hand to help Vala up, and Daniel trailed along behind.

It was late spring on the planet, so even though their chocolate-chip camo didn't quite fit with the grassland and forest anymore, he was glad for the jacket. One of the female cats brushed her head under his hand as they walked, and he couldn't help smiling, running his fingers through her fur. The cats' easy affection was catching; despite his earlier irritation, he already felt more relaxed than he had been in weeks.

_:This is not the first time that a cub has been accompanied by someone not from our tribe,:_ Miuty said. _:Vala, will you assist please?:_

"You know, I would except that I just had my nails done," Vala said, holding up her hands so that even from behind her, Daniel could see she was full of crap. She had the horrible habit of biting her nails, and the bubble gum pink polish was chipped.

"I'll do it," Daniel said, shoving up between Teal'c and Vala. Actually, Vala just moved aside, because Teal'c really didn't give ground to anyone.

_:Good,:_ Miuty said, and motioned toward a bowl sitting on a nearby rock. _:This is a mixture of paint. Come and smooth it onto Cameron's face so that he has not only the heart of a Miuta but the markings of one as well. It will help to focus Spike on his journey.:_

Daniel blinked, wondering when he'd ever learn not to open his mouth and say the first thing that came to mind in these situations. In a fit of boredom, he'd calculated that he only had a forty-six percent success rate when he opened his mouth anyway. "You want me to what?" he asked, just to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating.

Spike shoved hard at the back of Daniel's knees, nearly knocking him over, and made him step closer to the bowl. Cameron just tipped the side of his mouth up in a grin like he enjoyed how uncomfortable Daniel suddenly was.

_:The paint is based in water, it comes right off and will not even stain your garments,:_ Miuty assured him. _:Just take some on your fingers and paint a pattern over Cameron's face._

Sighing, Daniel peeked at Cameron again to make sure that he was still okay with Daniel putting his hands all over Cameron's face. Daniel hadn't so much as sneezed in Cameron's direction since he'd almost gotten Cameron killed on their last away mission. Cameron just kept his seat, and tipped his head back like he was daring Daniel to do his worst. Daniel instantly put Cameron on his hit list.

"Here, make yourself useful," Daniel said, his voice almost hoarse so that he had to clear his throat while he handed Cameron the bowl to hold. He dipped his pinky in the paint and reach up to trace thin lines down Cameron's forehead.

Without a Miuta's fur and looser skin, the symbol looked a little too much like a sign of Origin for Daniel's comfort. Gently, he lifted Cameron's jaw higher and left his hand in place to hold Cameron still. He traced down Cameron's nose, and rotated his finger to make the line die out. He wiped his finger off on his pants and thought about how to make the tear tracks.

Finally, he let go of Cameron, and dipped both thumbs in the paint. "Close your eyes," he said softly, instantly missing the contact when Cameron followed his directions. Very carefully, so that he missed Cameron's eyelashes, Daniel pressed his thumbs on either side of Cameron's nose and dragged them down. Cameron twitched under his fingers.

"Sorry, did I scratch you?" Daniel asked, quickly pulling his hands away.

Cameron grabbed his wrist before Daniel could back further away and tugged him back, even closer than before so Daniel stood between Cameron's knees. "No, it's okay," he said, and held the bowl back up. "It just tickled is all."

"All right, just a couple more to do then," Daniel said, acutely aware of the silence around them while everyone watched. Cameron's cheeks were smooth under the pads of his fingers; he must have shaved when he changed for the mission. He dipped his first two fingers and painted stripes like the Miuty had. He stepped back and surveyed his work. "That'll do, Cam. That'll do."

Cameron broke out into a grin and tried to reach up to touch the paint, but Daniel knocked his hand away. "It still looks wet," he said, and bit his bottom lip. "Don't want you to smear all my hard work."

"Right. Better not quit your day job, Daniel," Vala said, breaking the spell between him and Cameron so he could back up to a more professional distance. "If you think that's hard, you should see what I have to do every morning."

"No thanks, Vala," Cameron drawled, standing and bending his spine around until it cracked. He clasped Daniel on the shoulder, and turned back to Spike and his father, "Anything else we need to do before we leave?"

_:No, that is all,:_ Miuty said, standing gracefully. He turned to the west and flicked his ears forward. _:The path is here. Enjoy your afternoon and come back the wiser for it.:_

"Will do," Cameron said cheerfully, waiting for Spike before they started off together, walking into the trees that grew densely up the side of the foothills.

Daniel watched them go, and realized that it didn't matter how long he spent avoiding Cameron, just one look was enough to set him back ten steps. Shau'ri would laugh at him if she could see him now, and remind him how badly he had courted her. If only someone would accidentally give Cameron to him, then Daniel's life would be all right.

 

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"Cameron! You're back!" Vala yelled in the middle of Daniel's explanation of why she couldn't take a Miuta home with her, even if she claimed that it followed her on its own. She shoved back from her seat, and would have knocked over Daniel's drink if Teal'c hadn't grabbed it just in time.

The Miuta held a communal meal whenever one of their youngsters went through the last rite of passage. Luckily, it involved less raw meat than Daniel had originally thought it would, and was actually more like a pre-bedtime snack. The humans living with the Miuta brought out platters of baked bread and sweetened butter that Daniel knew Cameron would go nuts over.

Daniel turned and watched Vala run and do her signature hop into Cameron's arms, wrapping her legs around his waist. Sighing, he tried not to show his jealousy when Cameron tightened his arm around her and tugged affectionately at her hair. He looked good, easy and relaxed with Spike leaning against his legs. The paint on his face made him rugged and exotic, more than just a good ole boy from Kansas.

"Hey, everything go all right?" Daniel asked, walking over at a more sedate pace, sadly knowing that he wouldn't get the same warm greeting. Teal'c stayed behind talking to Fang, head of the Miuta militia. They planned to stay just for a little bit before heading home.

"Right as rain," Cameron said with a smile, gracefully setting Vala down, twisting out of her reach and stepping up to Daniel. He grabbed the collar of Daniel's jacket and pulled Daniel forward until their foreheads bumped. "And boy, what a rush."

He'd deny it later, but Daniel squeaked when Cameron angled his head and brushed their cheeks together. He shifted his hips away as Cameron snuffled against Daniel's ear and breathed deeply against his hair. Warm breath floated over his neck, and an even warmer hand petted over the small of his back. Daniel looked wide-eyed at Vala, who just smirked and crossed her arms under her chest. Mentally, Daniel wrote her name right under Cameron's on his hit list.

Spike looked on with that annoying cat expression of smugness and flicked his tail around Daniel's ankle. _:Thank you for letting me borrow him, Daniel,:_ Spike said, his voice less distinct than the Miuty's, and colored with extra images that helped Daniel understand the meaning all together.

Make that two for his hit list.

"Cameron, what?" he started, trying to pull away from an embrace he wanted nothing more than to relax into. SG-1 weren't spontaneous huggers - well except for Vala. No one was dead, no one should be hugging, especially the straight guy who had turned Daniel down.

_:Do not worry, Dr. Jackson. It will wear away soon and he does not do anything he does not wish to do.:_

There was no way Cameron would act like that if he were in full control of himself. He wasn't the type of man to lead a guy on, and Daniel thought it had been pretty obvious that Cameron just wasn't interested. He didn't want to take advantage of Cameron, almost as much as he didn't really want to know what he was missing, "Yeah, but-"

"Naw, it's okay, Daniel," Cameron said, tucking his arm around Daniel's waist and leading him back to the middle of the village. "C'mon, I'm starving."

"Sure, but-"

"Seriously," Cameron said, talking over him while he negotiated around the Miuta lining up to congratulate Spike, "it was cool. They have these crystals set up so that when they're clear and the sun sets, it magnifies the rays to light a fire."

"Okay, but-"

Cam reached up and turned Daniel's head for him, leaving his fingers hot against Daniel's throat. "Take a gander at that, huh?" he said, chuckling looking at Spike being groomed by a slightly larger female. "Looks like Spike's got himself a girlfriend already. Isn't it sad how fast they grow up?"

"Sad, yes. Let's get you sitting down," Daniel said, warily nudging Cameron along with his hip. He aimed for a downed tree that was still in the fire light but away from everyone else and pushed Cameron down. "So about that fire and your vision quest?"

"Yeah, it was wicked," Cameron answered, managing to swing his leg over the tree at the last second so he could straddle it facing Daniel. "Spike put some sort of leaves on it, and - _hey_ do you think I'm high?"

Daniel caught Cameron's face and angled him so Daniel could see his eyes. "Christ, your pupils are blown. You're so high on catnip, it's no wonder you couldn't come back until after the sun set."

"I didn't mean to," Cam said, smiling slowly, so that his cheeks crinkled under Daniel's palms. He blinked and licked his lips, sliding just a little closer to Daniel, "Spike did this awesome growl-roar thing. It was cool. And then, there was all this _stuff_."

Resigned, Daniel tried casually to deflect Cameron's hands from where he tried to wrap his fingers in the laces of Daniel's vest, "See anything interesting?"

"I saw you."

"Maybe we should stop talking now," Daniel offered, the need to be anywhere away from his incredibly handsy team leader. This had to be an unconstitutional form of cruel and unusual punishment. He stood and nearly tripped pulling away, "Didn't you say you were hungry? I'll go get you something to eat."

Daniel turned and hopped over a pair of cubs chasing their mother's tail. He piled a plate up with bread and fruit, remembering how much his roommate in grad school liked to eat after a binge. When he got back, he discovered he shouldn't have bothered.

Cameron and Spike were curled tightly around each other, one purring and one snoring, both louder than a diesel engine. Spike had one arm over Cameron's back, his paw flexing in rhythm with his breathing. Almost against his will, Daniel smiled. Then he smiled wider, as he'd bet money that Vala had brought her camera with her.

 

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

 

Cam woke up in his rack under the mountain, breathing air that had probably been filtered and reused more than a dozen times over. For a second, everything was fine - and then the headache hit, and he kinda wished he hadn't woken up at all. This year's KU football poster mocked him from the wall, and he idly wondered if throwing his alarm clock at the Jayhawk would be a moral victory.

"Good afternoon, Colonel Mitchell."

Wincing, Cam turned his head just enough to see Teal'c sitting in the recliner in the corner with an open book resting on the arm. "Hey, T," Cam croaked, and then realized there was a glass of water on his nightstand. After a long drink, he cleared his throat and tried again. "So, what's the good word?"

"Off duty," Teal'c answered, replacing a _Dora the Explorer_ bookmark to keep his spot when he shut his book.

"Those are good words," Cam tried to sit up and discovered he wasn't quite as bad off as he thought he was. He finished the water and swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Um, I didn't molest General Landry when we came back or anything did I?"

He could only remember flashes from after he and Spike made it down off the mountain. He'd attached himself to Daniel's side, then Spike pounced on him and they'd taken a catnap. He remembered the most amazing butter melting over bread, and much to his embarrassment, he was pretty sure that Miuty talked him into dancing with the young adult cats. What he didn't remember was how they got back to the SGC and him into bed.

"No, you did not. We timed our return to coincide with third shift lunch and avoided the on-call nurse," Teal'c said, his low voice almost reminding him of Spike's rumbling purr. "Daniel Jackson has been my friend for many years. What are your intentions?"

"Whoa. C'mon, T, give a guy a chance to wake up, huh?" Cam asked, desperately trying to think of an excuse to get him out of the room before Teal'c tried to give him the birds and the bees speech. "You know, there's this little rule we have in the military here on Earth called-"

Teal'c lifted his eyebrow, effectively cutting Cam off without a word. The regs were there for a reason, but they were shifting quickly to a more inclusive standard. Now, unless there was a major problem, the SGC was very unlikely to reprimand its soldiers for what they did in their private life - not when they risked life and limb on nearly every mission. Cam didn't have a leg to stand on anymore, and he knew it.

"You have had enough time. It is exhausting watching you and Daniel Jackson take turns chasing each other across the base," Teal'c said, standing. He folded his arms behind his back and inclined his head, "Consider yourself put on notice. I believe you will find Dr. Jackson at his apartment. I suggest you do not waste any more time."

He was really going to need to cut back the amount of time Teal'c spent watching reruns of _The Colbert Report_, but he probably should just be happy that Teal'c wasn't carrying around a big blue board to slide his name into. He wondered if he'd be above or below "false gods", "bucket hats", and "females wearing ridiculously short shorts with cowboy boots".

Teal'c gave him a look that quite clearly said _You and who's army?_ as if he could read Cam's thoughts. Cam wasn't actually sure that Teal'c couldn't, not after the Jaffa gained fifty years of experience on all of them. He wished he had the sheer amount of iron will that it must take Teal'c to remember not to say anything about that time.

"Can't I at least take a shower?" Cam asked, because even though he knew that he needed to talk to Daniel and hell even wanted to, his stomach squirmed at the idea. After everything, all the running around and apparent miscommunication, he knew that the stakes would never be higher. He should just be glad that he was getting one more shot, but it was a lot of pressure. Strange how getting high with an alien cat really changed his perspective. He'd grab the bull by the horns and _sit_ on the damn man until they finally talked

"No."

Grinning, Cam shook his head and stood up, "Well that's a fair answer to a fair question." Under Teal'c's glare, Cam made record time from lacing up his boots to hitting topside even with a detour to avoid Kavanaugh. He half-expected Teal'c to get in the car with him to make sure he went straight to Daniel's, but instead the Jaffa raised one hand in salute and turned back inside.

Daniel opened his door after the third time Cam pounded on it, his t-shirt backwards and inside out. He squinted without his glasses and rubbed his face, the sound of his fingers on his stubble loud enough for Cam to hear.

"Um, hi," Cam said, suddenly at a loss for words. So much for all the work he did thinking up what he was going to say when he finally got through traffic. Maybe Daniel would give him brownie pints for effort.

When Daniel just kept looking at him, it was obvious that he and Teal'c had both been wrong. If Cam had ever had a chance with Daniel, he'd blown it already. He felt his heart sinking; he'd allowed Teal'c and Sam to convince him that all he had to do was show up and then the music would swell and he'd get his happily ever after. He was such an idiot.

"You're still wearing the face paint," Daniel said, finally stepping back out of the doorway.

Cam stepped inside and reached up to touch his forehead and trace down his nose. He could feel the slick places where his Miuta markings were still intact. He was still an idiot. "Guess that might explain why that little old man crossed the street to avoid me," he said, sliding around Daniel and into the living room.

The coffee table was stacked high with leaning piles of books and magazines. Crates, probably containing more books and magazines, took the place where a normal American would keep a wide screen TV. A layer of dust covered most of the shelves, and Cam realized that whenever they hung out, it was always at his place. He turned around ready to lay it out, and do whatever it took, but Daniel beat him to it.

It wasn't the first time Daniel's hands spanned across his face, but Cam was still surprised enough to let Daniel pull him in without resistance. The first moment their lips touched, his stomach bottomed out and he closed his eyes in pleasure. Daniel didn't taste like much of anything, but he was still sleepy warm and solid.

Daniel broke away, turning his head away with his eyes still closed, "I'm probably going to regret that when I wake up enough."

"Not because of me," Cam said, tugging Daniel back around by the hips into another kiss. He angled his head and swept his bottom lip from side to side, until Daniel opened his mouth enough to let Cam slip his tongue inside.

Tentatively, Daniel wrapped his arms around Cam's waist and pulled their bodies together. The contact felt even better because he didn't feel like he was about to float off the planet. Daniel made a sound and clutched Cam's t-shirt, pulling it up with one hand until he could slide his other hand down the skin of Cam's back, fingers teasing the waistband of his jeans.

"Do you," Cam tried to talk, but Daniel kept kissing him, even when he missed and caught Cam's nose instead. "Should we talk? Because I-"

"God no," Daniel mumbled, yanking at Cam's clothes hard enough to pop the stitching out. He pressed his forehead against Cam's jaw, "Just take this off. I need to touch you."

Cam reached back and grabbed his shirt, pulling it over his head and tossed it to the side. Daniel dropped his head and mouthed over Cam's collarbones. Thumbing Cam's nipple, Daniel pressed forward until Cam found himself with his back against the wall. He carded his fingers through Daniel's hair, and widened his stance.

Daniel petted down Cam's chest, following the trail of hair down to his bellybutton. He paused there, his fingers close to Cam's zipper when he nipped at Cam's lip again. "I want to blow you," he said, almost panting as he spent his time kissing and licking at Cam's neck instead of breathing. "Let me?"

"Well, I'm not gonna say no," Cam answered, tugging until Daniel finally backed away to take his shirt off too. The faint strains of daylight that fought past the curtains bathed Daniel in a warm glow, and Cam couldn't believe that they'd waited so long, "Then I'm gonna suck you too. Then we're going back to bed. And then, we're gonna do it all over again."

The noise that Daniel's knees made when they hit the hardwood floors made Cam flinch, but the next second his pants were halfway down his thighs. Daniel didn't bother with any preliminaries, just sucked Cam's steadily hardening cock into his mouth with shocking heat. Cam's breath hitched as his hips jerked forward, watching Daniel ride out the motion.

He'd thought about it, of course he did, because Cam was great at multitasking. All those mission briefing for the General where Daniel stood at the front of the room while Cam watched his smart mouth move, words released almost too quick to really hear. He thought about Daniel's lips wrapped around his cock, cheeks hollowed and eyes closed in pleasure while Cam thrust in and out. All that and he could still translate for General Landry at the end, too.

Reality was even better, because _this_ Daniel made noises that zinged straight down Cam's spine making him even harder. This Daniel couldn't stop touching Cam, running his hand up Cam's chest and down his back until Daniel had Cam's ass in his hands, digging his thumbs into the muscle and encouraging Cam to move. This Daniel looked up and met Cam's eyes while he swallowed around Cam's dick, working his tongue from side to side.

"Fuck, Daniel," Cam groaned, tearing his eyes away and thumping his head back against the wall. He dropped his hand from the top of Daniel's head, tracing his thumb along Daniel's eyebrow and down around Daniel's stretched lips. He touched the little bit of his cock he could reach, though it was slick with spit too. He bit his lip, "I'm not gonna last."

Daniel's fingers tightened and he sucked harder, sliding his mouth up and down, but it wasn't until he hummed that Cam came apart. The vibration shook Cam, and he thrust again, enough that he jerked up on his toes and only Daniel's arms kept him from sliding down the wall in puddle of Lieutenant Colonel goo. Daniel held him and kept swallowing until Cam had to straighten up and pull away, the pleasure turning quickly to ache.

When he could open his eyes again, Cam watched Daniel lick his chops and palm himself through his pants. Cam smiled and said, "Come back up here."

The kiss was slower, even while Daniel desperately rubbed up against Cam's hip. Cam nearly fell over trying to toe his shoes off while chasing the taste of himself from Daniel's mouth. Finally, he shucked shoes, socks, and pants and started on Daniel's zipper. "So, hey," he asked, sliding his thigh between Daniel's legs, "you got a bed around here, or do you just sleep on a nest of books?"

"I suppose I might be able to clear off a space for you," Daniel said, still breathing hard. He tugged Cam down the hallway, his hand wrapped tightly around Cam's wrist, "but you're really going to have to wash your face before that stuff sinks in any further."

"You don't like it?" Cam asked, catching his reflection in the mirror of the bathroom Daniel shoved him in. He'd been so hard while Daniel painted the symbols on his face; he really needed to send Miuty a fruit basket or something.

"It's just that I don't think Landry would appreciate me throwing you over the briefing table in the middle of a meeting," Daniel said, pressing tight against Cam's back so he couldn't miss Daniel's still waiting erection for just a second before he pulled away. "Hurry up, the bedroom's on the left."

Cam didn't wait for the water to warm up before he started scrubbing his face.

 

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

 

Two weeks of the best sex of his life made Daniel a very happy man. It wasn't that it was perfect or anything. Sex was still a bit of a negotiation while they figured out what they each liked, and quirks that were easy enough to ignore when they weren't sleeping together took a little more work to overlook. Even with Cameron's extra pulpy orange juice, and surprising collection of angry girl music, Daniel wouldn't trade any of it for any other life.

Daniel fished the lube out from under him and made sure the cap was on tight. He reached over, enjoying the stretch of his sore muscles and opened the bedside drawer. He intended to just drop it inside when something caught his eye; it was a slim book, faded cover and tattered edges. Under his fingers, the pages were soft and thin; they sounded like leaves scattering in front of a fall wind. Curious, he flipped to the title page.

"_Sun and Saddle Leather_," Cameron said, walking back to the bed and climbing over Daniel's body. He settled between Daniel's legs, and rested his head on his folded hands over Daniel's stomach. "It's by Badger Clark. My dad gave it to me a while back. Some of it's really good."

Daniel spread his hands over Cameron's shoulders and rubbed. He bent his knees just enough to squeeze Cameron's ribcage. "Do you remember any of it?" he asked, setting the book back down on top of the nightstand.

"_'The sunrise plains are a tender haze And the sunset seas are gray, But I stand here, where the bright skies blaze Over me and the big today,'_" Cameron quoted, lowering his head so his lips moved along Daniel's abs, "_'What good to me is a vague "may be" Or a mournful "might have been," For the sun wheels swift from morn to morn And the world began when I was born And the world is mine to win.'_"

"I like that," Daniel finally decided, after a moment of silence, still feeling Cameron's voice vibrating through his body. Outside the window, the wind rustled the trees and a lone dog howled against the night. "It suits you."

"Yeah?" Cameron said, smiling against Daniel's stomach. "Want me to recite his ode to bacon?"

"You're kidding!" Daniel laughed, hauling Cameron up and kissing down his neck. "Tell me you're kidding."

"_'You're salty and greasy and smoky as sin But of all grub we love you the best. And the rough course of empire to westward was greased By the bacon we fried on the way.'_"

Daniel silenced him with a longer, drawn out kiss even as he reached out with one hand to find the lamp and turn it off. The moonlight washed them both in black and white, and despite everything being blurred, Cameron was the most awesome sight Daniel had ever seen.

However, no power on Earth, or any other planet, could make him listen to poetry about bacon.

 


End file.
